Month: September 2017

This week’s Bungie update has another interesting piece of information for Destiny 2 fans; specifically, initial word of plans for Destiny 2 weapon adjustments. Which is perhaps unsurprising, but still is likely good to know for players who have strong opinions on the shooter’s many tools of war.

Word of tweaks comes from senior designer Jon Weisnewski, who confirms that the devs of Destiny 2 have been paying attention to player remarks, metrics, and personal experiences in-game. “We’re not ready to go into detail about any weapon or ability tuning at this point, but there is an ongoing process in play, so we did want to drop a quick line and say…we have your feedback,” said Weisnewski.

While specifics on just what tweaks are planned were not detailed, the post does make mention that focus on “updates that tune the sandbox experience” will inform weapon adjustments. The post also acknowledges the popularity of the MIDA Multi-Tool, offering a nod to other items that match or even surpass the weapon’s effectiveness.

“It’s only the first month of a long adventure,” closes Weisnewski. ” Many players are still gathering weapons for their arsenal and we have a handful of guns that haven’t even hit the game yet. We’re excited to see how things evolve.”

Our Thoughts

We’re excited to see how things evolve as well! The language of the post seems to infer that the adjustments will have a PvE focus, but then again the argument could be made that the Crucible is its own form of “sandbox” as well. Do you think Destiny 2’s weapons need help on the PvE side, the PvP side, or both?

There’s a new social platform coming together that’s engineered specifically for MMO players and gamers of all stripes. It’s called MMOCircles and today the new site has launched its beta version for those who might be interested in coming together outside of traditional social media.

Describing itself as “the Facebook for gamers”, MMOCircles boasts 500 active users already and a long list of games that it supports. The site will introduce the ability to join and form Clans, though the function does not appear to be available as of this writing.

The site does have a list of many MMOs and MMORPGs, from Star Stable to The Elder Scrolls Online, all of which directly lead to the game’s appropriate registration page, along with a personal wall where users can post their thoughts, photos, or personal articles and blogs.

More features are planned to be added, though what those features could be was not a part of the announcement. In the meantime, you can take a look at just what the site does have to offer by heading there yourself.

Our Thoughts

Where MMOCircles might fit into the world of social media is not terribly clear, and my own personal experience browsing the site for this story has shown a platform that still has a lot of time before it offers anything worthwhile to MMO fans. Still, MMOCircles could manage to become something interesting if it manages to integrate the right games and builds a userbase. Is this site something you’d consider utilizing?

It’s been another edition of the Live Letter from the Producer for FFXIV and with it comes a slew of new reveals for the MMO’s next update, including the release date for Final Fantasy XIV patch 4.1.

Players will now be able to delve into dungeons with their Grand Company Squadron members. The new feature will let players enter a total of five dungeons with themselves and three other Squadron members and is open to Squadrons who have achieved at least Rank 2. Players will be able to determine how their Squadron’s AI will operate, as well as issue orders to attack, fall back, or engage a Limit Break.

An Extreme difficulty of Shinryu’s Domain is arriving this patch, along with a new Ultimate version of the Coil of Bahamut. The harder Shinryu fight is described as more difficult than Susano and Lakshmi extreme and will reward a new weapon, while the new Coil of Bahamut will require item level 340 and a clear of Deltascape Savage 4.0, and will reward players with a token that can be turned in for a weapon.

PvP’ers are getting a new mode in 4.15 with the introduction of Rival Wings, a MOBA-esque mode where two teams battle it out to destroy their opponent’s core. The mode will let players summon controllable giant machina by collecting items to recharge them. There is a limit to how many machina can be called forth per team, and machina come in several varieties such as machines that excel in attacking players or attacking structures.

Patch 4.1 will also introduce the new Lost Canals of Uznair treasure rooms, several HUD updates, new Kojin Beast Tribe quests, a new Hildibrand quest line, and a variety of class adjustments which will be detailed in the patch notes.

Patch 4.1 is set to arrive to Final Fantasy XIV on Tuesday, October 10th. You can check out the summary for the Producer’s Live Letter here, and watch a trailer for the patch below.

Our Thoughts

You got MOBA in my MMORPG! But, as always, this looks like another stellar content update for Final Fantasy XIV and we’re eager to get started. Which piece of content are you looking forward to most?

Development on sandbox MMO Legends of Aria is continuing to chug along as the dev team has announced the last Legends of Aria alpha test is now underway. The latest build is described as the largest to the game yet, granting players more of nearly everything.

The current Legends of Aria build has piled on two new starter cities, what is described as “many” open-world dungeons and adventure zones, five underground dungeons, and a raid. The game’s combat system has also seen a rework as characters now have access to a broader range of skills.

Citadel Studios’ CEO Derek Brinkmann is, understandably, pretty pleased with how things have gone. “Legends of Aria has been a massive undertaking for our independent studio these last three years. But we’re nearing the finish line, and frankly I’m beyond proud of what we’ve accomplished,” he says in a statement.

The last alpha phase is on now and will run until Monday, October 9th, and is open to those who have put in their pledge. Beyond that, the sandbox has no firm dates for beta and eventual Steam release beyond sometime later this year.

Our Thoughts

Congratulations to the devs at Citadel Studios for what appears to be a successful round of alpha testing. Seeing this game grow from its Shards Online start to its current build has been impressive and we’re hoping that sandbox MMO fans will find a lot to like in Legends of Aria.

It’s that time of the year again and an Overwatch Halloween event is imminent. With spooky new skins, a return of last year’s items, and possibly a repeat of Junkenstein’s Revenge, it’s definitely something we’re looking forward to. But what could Halloween Terror 2017 look like?

In this Play of the Fortnight, we’re doing some speculation about what we can expect, and what new skins we’d love to see.

Halloween Terror 2017 Start Date

Last year’s Overwatch Halloween even began on October 11th. With that date looming closer, we could possibly see the Halloween Terror 2017 start date in the next two weeks. Since Blizzard usually patches on Tuesdays, Tuesday, October 10th looks like a possibility. Last year, it ran through to November 3rd.

With Halloween itself falling on Tuesday 31st, we’ll probably have this year’s event last until around November 7th. However, with that in mind, Blizzard may choose to start the event a week later to keep with their three-week event tradition. We can expect the event to begin at the latest by Tuesday, October 17th.

Returning Halloween Terror Content

Blizzard set the bar for returning events when they released the Summer Games 2017. We know from that event that old content will most likely be available at a reduced credit cost, as well as potentially dropped in Loot Boxes. Again, the reduction in duplicates comes in very handy here. If you already unlocked everything from last year, you are unlikely to receive repeats and can work on your Halloween Terror 2017 collection instead.

Will Junkenstein’s Revenge Be Back?

Junkenstein’s Revenge was Overwatch’s first foray into a fully-fledged PvE brawl. The community really enjoyed it, and we were sad to see it go. However, with Lucioball making its return in the Summer Games event, Junkenstein’s Revenge should make its way back into the Arcade. Maybe there’ll be a few changes. For example, many members of the community thought that the brawl might take place on Chateau Gaillard this time, as it’s the perfect haunted castle location. We will probably still be able to play on Eichenwalde as well, but having two playable maps will give the brawl another breath of life.

It will be interesting to see if Blizzard decides to stick with the original Junkenstein’s Revenge hero roster. Last year featured “The Alchemist”, “The Archer”, “The Gunslinger”, and “The Soldier” (Ana, Hanzo, McCree, and Soldier-76 respectively). The enemies were “The Reaper” (Reaper), “Junkenstein’s Monster” (Roadhog), “Dr. Junkenstein” (Junkrat), and “The Witch” (Mercy). Maybe the enemies will remain the same, but we’ll see some additional heroes making their way onto the defense.

New Halloween Terror 2017 Skins

Last year, we saw skins for a lot of heroes. Ana, Bastion, Hanzo, Pharah, Reinhardt, Soldier-76, Symmetra and Zenyatta all got Epic skins. Meanwhile, Junkrat, Mercy, Reaper and Roadhog all received the Legendary skin treatment. It’s probably safe to assume we won’t see these heroes getting new skins this year, but Mercy did get a repeat skin during the Summer Games event, having one last year and a new one this year. Knowing that, anything is possible.

However, bearing in mind the heroes without Halloween skins, there are a few exciting thoughts from the community. One particularly popular idea was suggested by a few people, including Redditor GreatEscapist: a Cinderella themed D.Va. Affectionately named Cin D. Rella, our favorite Korean esports star would ride around in her pumpkin mech. This suggestion reached over 20,000 upvotes and over 1000 comments on Reddit. It’s unlikely to come to pass due to copyright, but it is a lovely idea, and D.Va certainly deserves a skin.

Other popular community suggestions include the outfits we saw in the masquerade comic. This would bring Reaper, Doomfist and Sombra some themed skins, though we’re not sure if they fit the Halloween idea Blizzard has gone with before. We are also missing the Torbjorn Viking skin we saw in the same photo that revealed the Mercy skin from last year, so that is always a possibility as well.

Overwatch Halloween Skins We’d Like to See

Apart from the ideas above, there are a few skins we’d love to see come to an Overwatch Halloween event. First of all, we would love to see some stereotypical Halloween costumes make an appearance. For example, the popular cat-girl costume could feature, perhaps for Tracer. We could also see a ghost-sheet on one of the heroes, or a skeleton costume. With the recent release of a certain creepy clown-themed movie, maybe Lucio could don a wig and some creepy make-up. These are all costumes we can expect to see people in the real world wearing, and they’d fit well within the Overwatch universe too.

We could also see a vampire bride or corpse bride costume for someone like Widowmaker, or a vampire hunter skin for McCree. The outfits would certainly suit them. Winston could have a Jekyll and Hyde style skin due to the way his ultimate works, or something similar to a werewolf. He’s already proven that the yeti skin works well from the Winter event.

Of course, the event wouldn’t be complete without a devil-like costume. And we all know who that would go to…(cough, Mei…)

Potential Event Changes

Much like with the Summer Games event, and the Anniversary event, it looks like the Halloween Terror 2017 event will have less new content. We’ve been seeing less and less new skins for the events. This is both good and bad: good, because we’ll have more of a chance of collecting everything, and bad because we’ll obviously see fewer fun skins and our favorite heroes might not get one. Either way, Blizzard was bound to scale back the amount of content they released for each event, as having a skin for at least half the hero roster wasn’t going to be sustainable forever. This way they can save some ideas for next year’s event.

Closing Thoughts

We can expect to see the Overwatch Halloween Terror 2017 event within the next two to three weeks, perhaps even sooner. With it, we’ll likely see the return of Junkenstein’s Revenge with a few changes, the content from last year available for unlock again (and cheaper!), and some new creepy skins and items to collect. Also, as it’s the second repeat event of the year, we’ll see how Blizzard is continuing to release repeat events and confirm whether they’re planning on going ahead the way they started with the return of Summer Games.

What skins are you most looking forward to for Halloween Terror 2017? Let us know in the comments below!

So perhaps you’ve heard about Closers Online and its Western release, but you’re not sure just who these anime people are. En Masse has got you covered as a series of Closers Online cast videos is set to premiere, with the telekinetic character Sylvi being the latest character focus.

Sylvi is the 18-year-old leader of the Black Lambs, the group of gifted that players will take the roles of in the game. An orphan of the Dimensional War, Sylvi possesses mental abilities that surpass other members of the Lambs, while her determination and work ethic have made her a natural leader – whether she likes it or not.

In battle, Sylvi is described as a caster, using a combination of telekinesis and knives to assault her enemies. Despite the inference of the “caster” archetype, Sylvi’s combat actions tend to keep her in close range like many of the game’s cast as she uses a combination of swift flurries and PBAoE attacks.

Additional trailers and details for the remaining Closers cast are expected in the next three weeks on the En Masse YouTube channel. There, fans can find backstory on the character Seha as well as see him in action.

Our Thoughts

A lot of the Closers cast can seem pretty trope-loaded, but ten again, many anime fans enjoy character types like this and we’d be lying if we weren’t a bit curious to know how the interactions among the Black Lambs play out. If nothing else, the action in Closers itself looks like fun, so if you’d like to try this MMO out for yourself, you could still grab an alpha access key.

Even if it sounds a bit like a pair of weapons you might find in Diablo, the Swords of Chult update arriving to Neverwinter is definitely a bit more than that. Neverwinter players will be seeing a new endgame Skirmish and a host of PvP updates.

The Tomb of Annihilation social hub of Port Nyanzaru has come under attack in the update’s new five-player Skirmish “The Merchant Prince’s Folly”, which will see groups head off foes that were created during the adventures through the jungles of Chult.

The Swords of Chult update is also introducing several adjustments for PvP’ers, including changes to armor penetration, PvP gearing, the replacement of the Tenacity stat, and the introduction of diminishing returns on control effects. The update is also bringing several quality-of-life changes to dungeon queuing, the campaign system, and the refinement system.

The Swords of Chult will be drawn upon PC players on Tuesday, October 24th. More information is expected in the coming weeks, but for now, details can be found on the game’s website.

Our Thoughts

Looks like there’s no rest for the adventurers of Neverwinter. It doesn’t sound like a particularly beefy update, but we’re sure players will get some enjoyment out of the new Skirmish and PvP’ers will definitely have some opinions on the proposed PvP adjustments.

If you’re a villain named Apocalypse, you’re probably not bringing pie and puppies. With that in mind, the Marvel Heroes Omega Apocalypse event that has arrived to PS4 and Xbox One players will see you battling the resurrection of one of Marvel’s more dangerous villains. And, again, there will not be pie and puppies.

Apocalypse is threatening to be resurrected by Mister Sinister and Clan Akkaba and it’s up to players to stop it in the “Apocalypse Awakens” encounter. Level 11 players in groups of 1 to 5 will have to confront the forces of En Sabah Nur in his Egyptian burial chamber, including the cloned Horsemen versions of Jean Grey, Storm, Psylocke, and Magik.

In addition to the new fight against Apocalypse’s mounting forces, the update introduces Jean Grey, Storm, Psylocke, and Magik as the next Omega Prestige-capable characters. The update also adds Omega Items that are earned by playing content in the new Omega difficulty setting.

If you happen to be a fan of the way the four X-Men look dressed like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, then you can also unlock these looks through the Apocalypse Loot Box or as part of the Age of Apocalypse Event Omega Pack, both of which are only available for a limited time.

A trailer showcasing the new event can be seen below.

Our Thoughts

Those variants of the X-Men look outstanding! Of course, fighting Apocalypse in almost any Marvel game is going to be an event in and of itself, so we hope that players of this MMOARPG have a great time all around. Do it for the pie and puppies!

Path of Fire may only be a few days old but I’ve already seen people saying there’s nothing to do. They pushed through the story hard and fast without getting a feel for the zones they passed through or even deviating to do some events, but the reality is there’s still so much left to do! Even if you’ve unlocked all the elite specializations and you’ve maxed out the mastery points there’s still more out there. But, if you are stuck for ideas here are 7 things you can do once you finish Path of Fire’s story.

Unlock Skins

Path of Fire has some amazing skins scattered throughout the zones with a variety of different ways to unlock them. Go out and find that Dwarven axe, unlock your funerary outfit and get some weapons to match. Already have your look picked out? How desert-friendly is it? Are you super pale and barely dressed? That’ll be a nasty sunburn. Consider having different armor looks for different areas of the world. You could, if you wanted, have completely different sets of armors and weapons for each region of the world as the meta changes and what worked well in the jungle may not work so well in the desert. Having multiple sets of armors allows you to customize your character depending on which region you’re playing, both cosmetically and for the sake of combat.

Finish Anything You Haven’t Done From Past Content

Yeah, this one is kind of an obvious one and a tiny bit cheating. But, if you’re anything like me, once you started playing Path of Fire you realized there are quite a few things in the jungle that you left incomplete. Sure, you aren’t doing the brand new shiny content, but the jungle is still full of people running metas and getting hero points. The Silverwastes, everyone’s favorite zone to farm is still alive and well. And you will want to be farming, because….

Legendary Weapon Prep

The next legendary weapon is only a couple of months away. Why not get started on it now? Not sure what it will need? Well, let’s take a look at what is left Dagger, Focus, Greatsword, Longbow, Scepter, and horn. There’s a lot of metal needed in those weapons. Less so wood, but wood is always needed. Leather, eh…not much leather needed amongst those weapons. What else do we know you need for legendary weapons? Various jungle related gifts, a full stack of fulgurite, ectos, and amalgamated gemstones. All your normal T6 materials, 100g worth of runestones, and a bunch of other things that change with each weapon. The point is, you already know a lot of what you should expect from the journey and that means you can get started on it now.

Bounties

I don’t know about your server, but on mine, I’ve started seeing bounty trains forming with the intent to hit every bounty in a given zone. In the jungle, we had hero point runs, in the desert, we have bounty runs. What are the benefits of doing them? Well, the most obvious one is for the loot. But there are also achievements to be earned. So it is well worth doing them, especially the legendary ones.

Achievements

There are achievements galore out in the desert. California had its gold rush, Elona has achievement points. That random scrap of paper you ran past? Achievement. Random chests on cliff edges? Achievement. There are even achievements for completing all the hearts in each zone. Never been one for hunting achievements? You’re basically throwing away free money, and keeping yourself from getting some small, but fantastic account-wide bonuses. It is the ultimate grind in Guild Wars 2. Work away at getting achievement points and get free gems, free gold, and exclusive skins. And in Elona, the achievement points pour in so fast you can’t keep track of it all. If you could sneeze in Guild Wars 2 I’m pretty sure there would be an achievement for sneezing in random places in the desert.

Chances are you’re already well on your way to working on some achievements thanks to the story and any adventures you’ve taken along the way. So why not do some work on those? Don’t forget, the desert also has a ton of hidden achievements that you’ll only find if you go out there (or look them up) and start looking.

Griffon

You’ve seen the griffon flying around and now you want one. I want one too. But ahead of you is a long journey and a massive money sink. Yes, it will cost you 250 gold to get your griffon. Yes, that hurts everyone. Yes, it is worth it. The journey will take you across Elona, have you completing hearts, and hunting for eggs. Can it be done quickly? Yes, it can. But it can also be part of a grand adventure. The kind that a legendary weapon always should have been.

How do you make it last? One way to do it is to not use a guide. Everything you need to know is right there in the achievements. They’re small hints, but they should be enough to get you on your way. While you’re out there let yourself get caught up in little events. While I was making my way through Elona to get to the first contact for the griffons I came across a couple of ghost kids. I won’t spoil how that little event chain ends, but it was well worth the detour. Sure, you might be tempted to blitz through it all, but when you do that you miss out on so much.

Explore

Possibly the best thing to do in Elona is mounting up and exploring. Does it look like you can get up to a particular high point on the map? Chances are you can and there’s something up there. Find a random hole in the ground? See where it goes. There are so many places to explore and little things to see that are off the beaten path that you could spend the entirety of the next two months doing just that. It is this very thing that has slowed down my review of Path of Fire and meant that it took me 6 days to finish the story. It’s so easy to get distracted in Elona, and that is a wonderful thing.

Path of Fire is still only a few days old and there is still so much left to do. Much of it is rewarding, but more than anything Path of Fire is about having fun. Renewing that sense of adventure. Go climb those mountains. Elona isn’t going anywhere, it’s ok to slow down and take a look around. Path of Fire is a gorgeous expansion and it’s only getting started.

Turns out that people like free games. Fortnite Battle Royale player numbers for the game’s launch day are in and they are certainly impressive, with a reported one million players hopping aboard the Battle Bus.

The announcement was made on the game’s Twitter page yesterday, thanking players for the outpouring of support for the new standalone mode. “Over 1 million players have partied on the Battle Bus during the first day of Battle Royale! Thank you and party on,” reads the tweet.

The success of the game mode can certainly be attributed to a couple of factors, chief among them being the game’s free-to-play launch as well as being the first battle royale title to arrive on consoles.

In spite of the celebratory news, not everyone is pleased by the addition. The early access PvE forums already have more than a few disgruntled posts from players believing that Epic Games is shoving Save the World aside in favor of Battle Royale.

“I didn’t willingly pay for a silly Battle Royale game. That was never on the table when the offer was made,” reads one post. “I have never felt this disrespected and shafted by the team behind a game that isn’t even out yet in such a short period of time,” reads another.

Our Thoughts

While Battle Royale appears to be getting traction in spite of both Bluehole Inc. and some players, we do have to wonder just whether or not Epic Games can indeed balance updating Battle Royale and Save the World to the satisfaction of both types of players. Where do you stand on this matter?